The FCC published an amendment to 2010 rules accommodating 30 MHz channels in the 6525–6875 MHz band and providing for conditional authorization on additional channels in the 21.8–22.0 GHz and 23.0–23.2 GHz bands. The FCC said in Wednesday's Federal Register that it published the original document in July 2010 and corrections in August 2010. Both “failed to add footnote 2 to the correct entries in the table in § 101.147(s)(7),” the FCC said. “In addition, certain entries are incorrect. This document corrects the final regulations by revising this section.”
The Human Rights Defense Center supports “legitimate” efforts to curb contraband cellphones in correctional facilities but warned that guards themselves are often the problem. The group commented in docket 13-111 as the FCC explores next steps to address the issue (see 1706200057). “The government and for-profit companies that offer services to detect or disable wireless devices are attempting to resolve the contraband cell phone problem by penalizing prisoners and creating products designed to generate profit instead of dealing with the real problem -- the failure of corrections officials to effectively deal with employees who smuggle cell phones into prisons and jails,” the group said.
Sprint and Samsung Electronics America recently tested massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) on the streets of Suwon, South Korea, using 2.5 GHz spectrum, said a joint news release Tuesday. “The Massive MIMO test represented a real-world application of the new technology, slated to help Sprint dramatically boost LTE Plus wireless capacity and coverage, and offer Gigabit LTE service to its customers.” Massive MIMO Samsung radios, “equipped with vertical and horizontal beam-forming technology, reached peak speeds of 330 Mbps per channel using a 20 MHz channel of 2.5 GHz spectrum,” they said.
Qualcomm made a strategic investment in Amionx, whose Safe Core technology is said to prevent lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding, it announced Tuesday. Estimated annual revenue for lithium-ion batteries is $35 billion, Qualcomm said.
Wilson Electronics executives met with Chairman Ajit Pai and adviser Rachael Bender on the company’s December request that the FCC eliminate the personal-use restriction on consumer cell-signal boosters (see 1703240041). “Signal booster rules had proved to be a success, as evidenced by the fact that Wilson had shipped 750,000 consumer boosters under the rules and not one has caused interference to a wireless network,” said a filing in docket 10-4. “The personal-use restriction, which was not part of the compromise that the industry hammered out, has worked to defeat the purposes of the signal booster rules.”
The FCC extended through Sept. 30 a waiver of the push notification requirements for white spaces devices, approved as part of an August 2015 order on Part 15 rules. Google sought reconsideration of the order’s requirement that databases “push” wireless mic reservation information to unlicensed devices (see 1603140047) and the FCC approved a temporary waiver, now extended. “This action will ensure that manufacturers may continue to market previously approved white space devices, and that users may continue to operate them,” said the order by the Office of Engineering and Technology in docket 14-165. “The ability of all approved white space devices to satisfy the at-least-once-daily database re-check requirement will ensure that wireless microphones will continue to receive interference protection from white space devices.”
Dedicated augmented- and virtual-reality headsets are projected to reach 100 million shipments in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent, IDC reported Monday. Screenless VR viewers powered by a smartphone, the lowest-priced form factor, have led, it said, citing products from Facebook, HTC and Sony. “Consumers are very likely to have their first AR experience via a mobile phone or tablet rather than a dedicated headset,” said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. In the next six to 18 months, PC vendors and Microsoft are expected to introduce tethered headsets and high-end stand-alone VR headsets.
Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said OLED remains important for smartphones, comprising 24 percent of display viewing area of small screens, “and we expect that to double over the next several years." In “small screens” for smartphones, OLED “has potential,” he told investors Friday. “Glass utilization for OLEDs is basically the same as for LCDs, but the increasingly demanding manufacturing processes for flexible OLEDs creates the need for an even higher-performance glass.” The CEO noted Samsung picked Lotus glass for the flexible OLED screens built into the Galaxy S8 and S8+. “Superior drop performance” of its fifth-generation Gorilla Glass for mobile devices “opens up opportunities to increase the amount of glass per phone,” said Weeks. Though plastics and metals were “primary materials” used for backs of smartphones, “glass offers design advantages, including more elegant form factors and better scratch resistance,” he said. Device makers also are starting “to incorporate new capabilities” into the backs of their smartphones, including wireless charging and faster data transmission, meaning more layers of glass are used, Weeks said.
Wright Petitioners, who argued before the FCC adopted an order in March that the cost of combating contraband cellphones mustn't be passed on to prisoners and their families, filed a petition for reconsideration. Commissioners approved 3-0 the order and a Further NPRM. The FCC "failed to (i) consider the entire record of the proceeding, (ii) acknowledge opposing legal or policy arguments, and (iii) provide any reasoned analysis as to why the information provided by the Wright Petitioners throughout this proceeding should be ignored or discounted,” the group said. The order included a cost-benefit analysis that said the record didn't contain any "detailed or concrete cost estimates," Wright Petitioners said. That was a surprise since Wright Petitioners “supplied ‘detailed’ and ‘concrete cost data,’ and even took the additional step of reminding the Commission that this information existed, and was available for its review, when it met with Commission staff after the draft Report and Order was released,” the petition said.
CTIA requested changes to rules for the 3.5 GHz shared band, in an FCC petition for rulemaking. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is overseeing revisions to the rules, which were finalized last year (see 1704190056). CTIA focused on rules for priority access licensees (PALs), the licensed component of the band. The FCC should change the PAL term from three years to “a standard, ten-year license term with an expectation of renewal to promote investment in the band” and modify PAL areas to partial economic areas rather than smaller census tracts, it said in docket 12-354. The agency should modify requirements for spectrum access system administrators’ treatment of registration information, “to reduce security risks to user identity information and to protect sensitive deployment information from disclosure to competitors,” CTIA said. “These changes will encourage investment in and development of this ‘innovation band,’ which holds promise for small cell deployment for mobile broadband.”